The Find My Friends app
already lets Apple users pinpoint the locations of other iPhone
or iPad users via GPS, but it doesn’t offer more than a one-time
identifier – it can spot the location of the phone but not much
else. The new patent would allow for a device's
movement to be logged as it's carried around, meaning a future
app could use all of the incoming data to trace a visible line
showing where an individual is, where they are going, and the
route they took to get there.

Apple describes the technology in its patent, titled 'Sharing
location information among devices.'

“The device could have a location system which determines a
current position of the device and displays the position on a
user interface of the device. The location application may also
track the location of the device over time and display a path
representing motion of the device.”

As an example, the patent described a situation in which two
people are each driving a car and running their navigation apps.
The second driver, trailing the first, would be able to receive
real-time spoken directions from their device based on the
location tracking data compiled from the first device. Instead of
spoken words, the app could also present directions via text,
draw a continuous path of the first driver’s movement, or perhaps
offer a combination of the three options.

Other examples include potentially letting parents track the
whereabouts of their children. There’s even potential for a
“mirroring” mode, which would let one user “transfer” what
they’re looking at on their screen to a second one, so the second
individual could see exactly what the first user is viewing on
their device. The feature would work across electronic devices –
smartphones, tablets, laptops, smartwatches, and more.

According to CNET, the technology would use GPS for
location tracking but could also foster communication between two
devices through a cellular network, Wi-Fi connection, or
Bluetooth.

Of course, any expansion of location tracking abilities is bound
to face questions from privacy and civil liberties advocates.
Apple’s patent, however, states that in order for someone to
track a person's movements via the new tech, they would have to
first request approval.

That qualification could become important for concerned users,
since a new study from Carnegie Mellon showed that apps
incorporating location tracking are typically tagging where you
are thousands of times a week. According to Wired, the report actually found that users
had their locations shared 5,398 times in two weeks.

The study found that even apps that wouldn’t necessarily need to
highlight location – such as games and digital Bibles – end up
tracking your whereabouts, often for advertising purposes.

“There are some applications where you could justify this
level of frequency – think for instance of a navigation
app,” Professor Norman Sadeh, who helped conduct the
research for the study, said to Wired. “So the frequency by
itself is not the problem. Instead it is whether the frequency is
justified, and obviously whether users are informed of these
practices and have some level of control.”